The Biggest Mistake Singers Make in the Summer
Summer is a great time to enjoy a long-awaited family vacation. Enjoy those rays of sunshine on your dock and nights at the campfire. However, taking three or four months off of your singing lessons can have some serious consequences for students. At this point in the term, students are excited about conquering new skills and reaching milestones. Taking the summer off brings that momentum to a screeching halt. Every music student has experienced the thrill of accomplishment when he or she masters a particularly difficult passage. But you can’t expect to maintain the skill needed to perform difficult pieces when you take a break from lessons for months at a time. Come fall, the student may have to relearn many of the things he or she mastered before.
This concept is similar in all areas of fitness. If you exercise your body regularly, there is a great health benefit. What do you think will happen if you stop exercising for 2 months? You can't expect to keep your health exactly where it was the last day you worked out.
Singing is an athletic sport. If you want to keep your voice healthy you must think of it as training for a major marathon. If you want to develop great vocal strength and stamina you must train constantly. Using your voice every day improves the coordination and muscular abilities involved. You simply can't "cram" technique into your muscles at the last minute. Your muscles don't work that way.
Your vocal cords consist of many layers. Aside from the lining and a jelly-like layer, there is a muscle layer. This muscle is critical for vocal cord motion. When it is activated, the vocal cords are brought together by this muscle in the middle so that a sound can be produced. However, if this muscle is not bulky enough, the cords are not able to completely touch in the middle and an airy aspirated sound will occur. This results in a weaker voice.
If you don't practice properly you will lose muscle bulk (strength). The loss of muscle bulk is called vocal atrophy. Atrophy will happen if voices are not worked out properly on a regular basis and that boils down to practising and careful studying with a voice teacher.
Take a week or two for holiday, but don't make the mistake of resting your voice for too long!
Keep singing,
